convert

Etymology

From Old French convertir, from Latin converto (“turn around”)

Pronunciation

Noun

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒn.vɜːt/
• (General American) enPR: kŏn'vûrt, IPA^(key): /ˈkɑn.vɝt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Verb

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kənˈvɜːt/
• (General American) enPR: kənvûrt', IPA^(key): /kənˈvɝt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)t

Noun

convert (plural converts)

1. A person who has converted to a religion.

   They were all converts to Islam.

   • 2004, Ted Jones, The French Riviera: A Literary Guide for Travellers, Tauris Parke Paperbacks (2007), →ISBN, chapter 3, 64:

     While still in this relationship, Greene, a convert to Roman Catholicism at 23, was asked to be godfather to Catherine Walston, a 30-year-old married woman, at her own conversion.

2. A person who is now in favour of something that he or she previously opposed or disliked.

   I never really liked broccoli before, but now that I've tasted it the way you cook it, I'm a convert!

3. (Canadian football) The equivalent of a conversion in rugby

Verb

convert (third-person singular simple present converts, present participle converting, simple past and past participle converted)

1. (transitive) To transform or change (something) into another form, substance, state, or product.

   A kettle converts water into steam.

   • Thomas Burnet (1635?-1715)

     if the whole atmosphere were converted into water

   • John Milton (1608-1674)

     That still lessens / The sorrow, and converts it nigh to joy.

   • 2013 September-October, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist:

     Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis: the ability to convert water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and waste oxygen using solar energy.

2. (transitive) To change (something) from one use, function, or purpose to another.

   He converted his garden into a tennis court.

   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set (Project Gutenberg; EBook #14852), New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, published 1 February 2005 (Project Gutenberg version), OCLC 24962326:

     “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; and she looked it, always trim and trig and smooth of surface like a converted yacht cleared for action. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, […].

3. (transitive) To induce (someone) to adopt a particular religion, faith, ideology or belief (see also sense 11).

   They converted her to Roman Catholicism on her deathbed.

   • William H. Prescott (1796-1859)

     No attempt was made to convert the Moslems.

4. (transitive) To exchange for something of equal value.

   We converted our pounds into euros.

5. (transitive) To express (a quantity) in alternative units.
6. (transitive) To express (a unit of measure) in terms of another; to furnish a mathematical formula by which a quantity, expressed in the former unit, may be given in the latter.

   How do you convert feet into metres?

7. (transitive, law) To appropriate wrongfully or unlawfully; to commit the common law tort of conversion.
8. (transitive, intransitive, rugby football) To score extra points after (a try) by completing a conversion.
   • 2011 February 4, Gareth Roberts, “Wales 19-26 England”, in BBC:

     Flood converted to leave Wales with a 23-9 deficit going into the final quarter.

9. (transitive or intransitive, soccer) To score (especially a penalty kick).
   • 2011, Jonathan Wilson, Brian Clough: The Biography, →ISBN:

     Hinton, inevitably, converted the penalty.

   • 2013, Mark Worrall, Kelvin Barker and David Johnstone, Making History, Not Reliving It: A Decade of Roman's Rule at Chelsea, →ISBN, page 225:

     However, the lead was doubled after the break, when Branislav Ivanovic converted from close range after Fernando Torres had flicked on.

   • 2016, Alex Crook and Alex Smith, Southampton Greatest Games: Saints' Fifty Finest Matches, →ISBN:

     This time Polish goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski was Saints' penalty shootout hero, saving three spot kicks before centre-back Wayne Thomas converted from 12 yards to seal a 6-5 win.

10. (intransitive, ten-pin bowling) To score a spare.
11. (intransitive) To undergo a conversion of religion, faith or belief (see also sense 3).

    We’ve converted to Methodism.

12. (intransitive) To become converted.

    The chair converts into a bed.

13. (transitive, obsolete) To cause to turn; to turn.
    • Ben Jonson (1572-1637)

      O, which way shall I first convert myself?

14. (transitive, logic) To change (one proposition) into another, so that what was the subject of the first becomes the predicate of the second.
15. (transitive, obsolete) To turn into another language; to translate.
    • Ben Jonson (1572-1637)

      which story […] Catullus more elegantly converted

16. (transitive, cricket) To increase one's individual score, especially from 50 runs (a fifty) to 100 runs (a century), or from a century to a double or triple century.
    • 2006, BBC, Gillespie hails 'fairytale' knock:

      Gillespie was reminded he had promised to join team-mate Matthew Hayden in a nude lap of the ground if he converted his century into a double.